There are two reasons to write about James Butler Hickok right now. One is baseball. We are in what the sport’s scribes call the “dog days” of the season when the pennant races become as hot as … Read the article
True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy is a probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie Robinson, one of baseball’s—and America’s—most significant figures. Read an excerpt below.… Read the article
Thanks to dazzling advances in xenotransplantation and stem cell research, transplant surgery appears to be going through a new Renaissance. But where did transplants come from? We tend to put them into the same category as the … Read the article
151 years ago, a journey to Africa began that would garner international fame. In March, Henry Morton Stanley set out from Zanzibar to find a missing British explorer. The intrepid Stanley would always be remembered for this … Read the article
As a new war erupts in Europe, Siân Evans recounts the tale of a heroic British nurse working behind enemy lines in Belgium during the First World War. Edith Cavell’s court-martial and execution by firing squad was … Read the article
I came to Heiresses by accident, during the course of researching another book. As I scanned letters and diaries by the usual suspects—Nancy Mitford, Cecil Beaton, James Lees-Milne—in search of information, I found myself intrigued by certain … Read the article
As complex in their own way as their Mitford cousins, Winston and Clementine Churchill’s daughters each had a unique relationship with their famous father. Rachel Trethewey’s biography, The Churchill Sisters, tells their story. Read on for an excerpt.… Read the article
We teamed up with the Unknown History podcast on Quick and Dirty Tips to bring you their latest series based on Giles Milton’s Checkmate in Berlin. Episode 7 discusses Winston Churchill’s seminal 1946 speech in Westminster College, which gave not … Read the article
I first came across the name Smedley Butler in Haiti, shortly after I’d moved there to be the correspondent for the Associated Press in 2007. He was in a painting of three Marines in old-fashioned khaki … Read the article
Sixty years ago the best Cold War spy the West ever had defected across divided Berlin to the safety of the U.S. Embassy. Ever since he has been an enigma: his extraordinary life, and the story of … Read the article